1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing multimodal sensor data. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for validating expected cohort behavior using sensory data gathered by multimodal sensor devices.
2. Background Description
A cohort is a group of people or objects that share a common characteristic or experience. For example, a group of people born in 1980 may form a birth cohort. A cohort may include one or more sub-cohorts. Another example, the birth cohort of people born in 1980 may include a sub-cohort of people born in 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah. A sub-subcohort may include people born in 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah to low income, single parent households.
A cohort study is typically a longitudinal study that monitors or tracks cohort groups over time to identify trends, rates of disease in the cohorts, cohort behavior, and/or other factors, events, and behaviors associated with the members of the cohort group. Future cohort behavior may be predicted using cohort models to determine probable behaviors of cohorts in a given environment. The accuracy of the predicted cohort models may be important to both long-term and short-term cohort studies.